透视台湾会计师事务所的发展历史和现状

我国台湾地区的经济起飞较大陆早了20-30年,其会计师事务所也因为起步早而积累了丰富的经验,这些经验对我国政府提倡的事务所做大做强和国琢化等或许有所帮助。针对以上问题,本刊归前采访了台湾交通大学助理教授林孝伦博士。（注：由于林博士是严谨的学者,而且采访通过电子邮件的方式进行,应其要求,文中内容进行了标注和注明参考文献）。     

会计师事务所利益派系与审计业务安排

会计师事务所的内部治理问题通常很难被传统的公司治理理论所解释。本文基于组织控制理论,将共同出资设立私有企业的审计师群体定义为会计师事务所中的利益派系,研究事务所利益派系对其审计业务安排的影响。我们研究发现：利益派系规模与其所审计的高收费客户比例正相关;审计定价市场化强化了利益派系的作用。在进一步分析中,我们考虑了利益派系首领、成立时间、业务安排变更及审计质量等多个方面。本文丰富了事务所内部治理相关研究,部分打开事务所内部治理的“黑箱”,并为监管部门规范会计师事务所一体化提供了决策参考。     

关于会计师事务所规模与审计质量之间的关系研究综述

一直以来,理论界和实务界都十分关注会计师事务所的规模对审计质量的影响,这成为其所关注的热点话题。我们从多数上市公司财务舞弊的案例也可以看出审计的重要性,市场为了保护投资者利益以及促进市场的稳定与发展,这就需要专业的外部监督者来对上市公司进行有效的监督。2007年5月,我国发布了两项重要文件,这两项文件要求全面启动我国事务所做大做强战略。但是,考虑到我国特定的制度背景,会计师事务所在规模上"做大"能否就是真正意味着审计质量的提高,其中,相关性是一个值得研讨的问题。     

美国会计师事务所的考察与体会

一、事务所业务结构 美国目前共有44345家会计师事务所,为全美1.7万家上市公司和2900万家小企业提供审计、会计、咨询及税务等专业服务.其规模分布如表一所示. 美国会计师事务所主要提供审计、税务、咨询三个大类的专业服务.每个事务所的业务结构主要取决于服务对象(客户)的规模和服务需求.     

国内会计师事务所与国际会计公司的差距

自1998年我国会计师事务所脱钩改制后,注册会计师行业发展很快。在90年代中期前,三、五十个人的事务所算是已不小的所,达上百万收入的事务所也不是很多。但到了2002年,几百人员工、年收入上千万的事务所已比比皆是,有的甚至达到近亿元的年收入,一些所还在全国各地建立各种分支机构。这主要得益于社会经济的发展、事务所经验的积累、职业范围的拓展、会计市场的扩大、人员素质的提高以及有关政策的支持。但随着加入WTO后我国会计市场的进一步开放,竞争会越来越激烈,如何进一步建立健全事务所内部法人治理结构、加强事务所的内部管理、提高…     

我国中小会计师事务所监管现状与对策

近年来,我国中小会计师事务所执业质量、内部控制水平不断提高,为维护和规范经济秩序发挥了较好作用。但在市场形象、发展定位等方面仍存在一些问题,如何加强对我国中小会计师事务所的监管是一个值得重点探讨的问题。     

重塑会计师事务所与客户的伦理关系

会计师事务所,是依法独立承办注册会计师业务,实行自收自支,独立核算,依法纳税的中介服务机构,是注册会计师执行业务的工作机构。会计师事务所在经济活动中扮演着一个特殊的角色,它一方面担负着塑造市场经济微观主体,规范企业经营活动的重任,另一方面又是国家对社会经济进行宏观调控的具体执行者。然而在竞争激烈的审计市场中,会计师事务所将招揽和保留客户成为主要任务,采用低价收费等一系列违规手段,导致审计达不到应有的质量保证,更不用说保持注册会计师的独立性;有的会计事务所甚至在审计中采用减少审计时间、简化必要审计程序的方法,以降低审计成本来保持会计师事务所的盈利。这样的经营策略必然会导致审计报告的可信度降低,同时还在业内形成恶性循环。究其原因,主要在于:一、服务对象的特殊性会计师事务所的服务对象较为特殊,从表面上看,注册会计师的服务对象是委托人或被审单位,在接受审计工作开始到审计工作结束为止,注册会计师只和被审计单位之间存在审计与被审计的关系。但是,注册会计师审计服务的结果不仅对被审计单位产生影响,还对成千上万使用被审计单位审计报告的单位或个人产生影响。此时,在注册会计师提供服务的过程中,就会产生矛盾,有时注册会计师和委托人或...     

美国与加拿大的会计师事务所内部治理机制

中注协"会计师事务所合伙文化"考察团去年拜访了美国注册会计师协会、美国公众公司会计监督委员会、加拿大注册会计师协会,组织了多次会计师事务所研讨交流会,实地参观了不同规模的事务所,对美国和加拿大会计师事务所内部治理机制建设的各个方面进行了研究、探讨。     

美国银行业并购浪潮:回顾与透视

一、美国银行业并购概况 从80年代末90年代初起,美国银行业不断掀起并购高潮.美国银行数量多、规模小的传统正在迅速改变,整个银行业呈现出加速集中化的趋势.     

会计师事务所网站建设与信息披露现状分析

随着信息技术的发展,会计师事务所的网站及其传递的信息已成了需要我们关注的重要问题。本文对此进行了初步探索,以求对我国会计师事务所网站建设提供有用的参考。     

The relationship between self-disclosure style and attitudes to responsibility accounting

This study investigates the relationship between self-disclosure and attitudes to responsibility accounting. The results indicate that (1) factor analysis of an existing self-disclosure instrument replicated a five factor solution and (2) reported self-disclosure was directly related to the attitudes to a responsibility accounting system because such a system requires making public one's performance. More specifically, the attitudes to responsibility accounting were found to be positively related to the amount and control of depth factors of self-disclosure and to be negatively related to the positive-negative, honesty-accuracy and intended disclosure factors.     

The organizational culture of public accounting firms: evidence from Taiwanese local and US affiliated firms

This study examines the organizational cultures of public accounting firms with data from US affiliated international accounting firms in Taiwan and Taiwanese local firms. Hypotheses are tested about the impact of the national culture of the US firms on their Taiwanese affiliates, and about cultural differences across function and rank. The study extends previous research by (1) examining an oriental country whose culture is significantly different from that of the US, (2) using the Hofstede, G., Neuijen, B., Ohayv, D. D., & Sanders G. (1990). Measuring organizational cultures: a qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 286–316 practices-based measure of organizational culture, and (3) examining the importance of the fit between employee preferences and organizational culture in influencing organizational commitment, job satisfaction and propensity to remain with the organization. Support is found for the cultural impact and fit hypotheses. Additonally, while culture is found to be relatively homogeneous across function, differences are found across rank.     

会计师事务所品牌建设中的文化内涵——基于会计师事务所与一般企业的比较分析

会计师事务所的人合特征、社会责任和专业属性决定了其在品牌建设方面有着与一般企业不同的要求和内涵。会计师事务所品牌建设的核心是文化的建设,文化建设包括择善固执的诚信文化、戒慎恐惧的风险文化和执经达变的执业文化三个方面。作为一个市场主体,会计师事务所也需要进行品牌建设并在市场中推广,本文就以品牌建设和推广为导向的会计师事务所社会与企业属性中的文化内涵作一些分析,寻找具有会计师事务所特质的品牌建设与推广策略与方式。     

The interaction between national and organizational cultures in accounting firms

This paper reports the results of an empirical study of the interaction between national and organizational cultures at the firm level. Using Hofstede's Value Survey Module, the concept of culture was operationalized in six accounting firms in The Netherlands. Three of these firms were local offices of international “Big Eight” accounting firms with a strong U.S.-orientation in their organizational philosophies and policies, whereas the other three firms were Dutch in origin and organization. All six firms work virtually entirely with Dutch employees. We were specifically interested in any influences of the U.S. culture upon the Big Eight firms. For two Hofstede's four cultural dimensions, i.e. Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity, significant effects of the U.S. culture upon the organizational cultures of the Big Eight firms were found. Further analysis showed that these results may rather be due to (self-)selection than to socialization mechanisms.     

Associations between social responsibility disclosure and characteristics of companies

Surveys have shown a trend of increased corporate disclosure of social responsibility information. This paper suggests some reasons why companies provide social responsibility information and examines the effects of four variables (size, systematic risk, social constraints and management decision horizon) on the social responsibility disclosure practices of Australian companies.     

Social mobility via elite placements: working class graduates in elite accounting and banking firms

ABSTRACT

Little research attention has been paid to the effect of yearlong placements in elite accounting firms and investment banks on the social mobility of working class graduates. Using the framework of Bourdieu, this paper examines the link between placements and employment destinations of eight cohorts of accounting and finance graduates from a non-elite British university. We find that elite professions are most likely to recruit graduates who have already gained the ‘right’ professional habitus through the successful completion of yearlong placements in the same elite firms in that particular field and/or with better degree averages. Social mobility of working class graduates taking an elite placement is evident after controlling for gender, age, ethnicity and degree average. The findings indicate that working class graduates need to consciously and continuously modify their class specific dispositions so that they can fully engage with higher education and elite placement experiences to achieve social mobility.     

The pricing of accruals for profit and loss firms

This paper investigates whether the accrual anomaly reported in prior studies exists across both profit and loss firms. We posit that the extent of accrual mispricing is less severe for loss firms than for profit firms because earnings for loss firms are less value relevant and, therefore, less subject to accrual mispricing. As expected, we find that the accrual overpricing anomaly is restricted to profit-making firms and, thus, is dampened by the inclusion of loss firms in the sample. Furthermore, we report that accrual overpricing for profit firms but not for loss firms is primarily attributable to the overpricing of positive accruals of profit firms compared with those of loss firms. Finally, we find that the phenomenon of accrual overpricing for profit but not for loss firms may persist into the new regulatory environment following the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002.     

The association between accounting earnings and security returns for large and small firms

The differential information hypothesis advanced by Atiase (1980) states that information production and dissemination by private parties for the purpose of identifying mispriced securities is an increasing function of firm size. This study examines two corollaries of that hypothesis. First, security prices of large firms anticipate accounting earnings earlier than security prices of small firms. Second, for a given level of ‘unexpected’ earnings, the cumulative abnormal returns of small firms exceed those of large firms. The results are generally consistent with Atiase's hypothesis.     

The relationship between accounting and spatial practices in the factory

During the eighteenth century, tobacco production in the Royal Tobacco Factory (RTF) of Spain moved from the San Pedro Factory located in downtown Seville to the purpose built New Factories outside the city walls. This paper examines the relationship between accounting practices and spatial practices in these two radically different factory premises. The paper explores how the intervention of detailed accounting calculations into spatial configurations and the intertwining of accounting and spatial practices provide discipline in the factory by yielding calculable spaces and accountable subjects. The spaces produced by architects in the New Factories were subsequently mediated through administrative arrangements that rendered enclosure and partitioning more disciplinary. Moreover, accounting practices were developed as a coding system to reconfigure factory space by classifying it into cost centres, quantifying activities carried out in these cost centres, and rendering spaces visible and subjects accountable. In this context, we argue that accounting practices have the capacity to function as time–space ordering devices, and, through networking with spatial practices, provide the scope for managers/administrators to enhance employee surveillance and overall factory discipline.     

The relation between commercial bank profit rates and banking concentration in Canada,Western Europe,and Japan

This paper examines the relation between the profit rates of 60 banks and concentration in the ‘home’ banking market of each. Other explanatory variables found to be significant are whether the bank is government owned, a proxy for profit rates throughout each country, and the rate of growth of individual banks' assets. The evidence supports the view that greater concentration leads to higher profit rates. However the relatively small coefficients of the concentration variable indicate that relatively large changes in concentration are necessary to reduce profit rates by one percentage point.